Conan O’Brien has done a lot of video game-inspired stuff on his show over the years… he definitely seems to have an appreciation for them. Minecraft is still pretty popular (although perhaps the peak has been reached), so it’s not really surprising that Conan has done an entire bit in Minecraft. Conan claims that they wanted to do an entire episode in Minecraft, but that after an initial approval the “creators” backed down and said no. So rather than a whole episode, they did a this video. It’s not bad… I wonder how many interns they had working on this? Read more…

Uh, ok. File this one away in weird news: Notch, the creator of Minecraft, has bought an enormous mansion in Beverly Hills for $70 million. Why? Because he can. I mean, the place has a built-in candy dispensary! It’s the most that’s ever been paid for a house in Beverly Hills, making it a record-setting sale, as well. Had you ever considered we’d be hearing about this kind of excess in the video game industry… from the creator of Minecraft? Notch seems like a pretty chill guy, all said, though. You could host some pretty intense game jams, there, couldn’t you? Check out the property’s branded website for more images and if you want to dream a little. Read more…

We all knew Minecraft was big, but I don’t think anyone saw this happening. Microsoft has announced that they have purchased Mojang, makers of Minecraft, for a whopping $2.5 billion. Creator Markus “Notch” Persson will be stepping away from his company and not join Microsoft, feeling that running such a big game/company isn’t as appealing to him as smaller projects that don’t create as much pressure. It remains to be seen what this means for versions of Minecraft on non-Microsoft platforms, such as Sony’s PS3, PS4, and Vita, the latter of which is launching soon. While it’s possible that sales or support could be halted, I’d wager Microsoft will continue allowing Minecraft on other platforms, since the work is already done or mostly done and it’s surely a worthwhile revenue stream. But until Microsoft comments, anything could happen with the property. Read more…

Are you one of the zillions of children playing Minecraft on Xbox 360? Maybe your own kids are into it? Well, time to get them into Doctor Who, too, with several new skin packs for the game soon. On the PC version of Minecraft, you can use and create any skin you can imagine, but on the Xbox 360 version, you’re limited to what Microsoft and Mojang offer. This has given rise to many licensed skin packs for the game, like these Doctor Who packs. The skin packs will start in September. Read more…

It was bound to happen sooner or later — the Minecraft movie rights have been picked up by Warner Bros. They’ve only attached one name at the moment: Roy Lee, the producer of The LEGO Movie. I would imagine that The LEGO Movie’s success had much to do with this announcement as well. They have a lot of crossover appeal, and can definitely hit the same demographic. I’d love if the same team behind The LEGO Movie did Minecraft, but I’m not sure they’d take it up. The news also mentions that the film will be live-action… which is an odd choice, but we’ll see how it turns out! I have high hopes for this. Read more…

You can make some crazy stuff in Minecraft, like ridiculously complicated calculators and clocks. One such clock, however, was intended by its creator to be the most “useless” creation possible, one that serves no other purpose and probably won’t even finish its processes. YouTube user spumwack’s clock is set to the approximate death of the universe, 1 googol (or 10^100) years from now. It has multiple stations that keep track of 320 times the amount of the previous station. For example, the stations roughly count out 4 minutes from the start, then 23 hours, then 303 days, then 266 years, and so on until everything that ever existed in the universe has come to an end. Obviously there’s almost no way this thing could still be running as the last black hole dies, leaving a barren universe, but the video does a great job of explaining what would happen along the way. So watch it and maybe think about it from time to time. Or just be one of the many people who will have forgotten about this perpetual clock 23 hours later. Read more…

Yup, the Minecraft hype train can’t be stopped! LEGO has had an incredible amount of success with their miniature Minecraft CUUSOO sets, and it now wants to replicate that on a larger scale! They’re going to be making minifigure-scale models that will expand to a whole line of sets. While they’re still in the very early phases, they’re asking for community input on what fans would like to see in the sets on their Facebook page. Currently they’re asking which Creeper design you like the most, so head on over and help decide! Then check out the video below which features more looks at the prototype sets! Read more…

Minecraft is an unstoppable freight train. It’s popularity continues unabated, and continues to shock even me, such as when I heard my girlfriend’s 7-year-old cousins talking about how they’re installing mods and custom features in Minecraft on their PC. I think it’s amazing that kids are being introduced to such a creative world and learning about fun things like modding. Hopefully that tech knowledge will inspire future endeavors! The new Minecraft update (out now), version 1.6, introduces horses, leads, clay blocks, and carpets into the game world, and The Farlanders have done a neat little trailer showing off these features. Check it out! Read more…

Are you pumped about Jurassic Park‘s rerelease in theaters, but don’t want to pay money to rewatch it? Then gather round and check out this Minecraft recreation of the movie that made every kid fascinated by dinosaurs (well, even more fascinated than kids usually are). A few liberties are taken, but hey, I recognize a lot of those places! Read more…

Remember how 2 Player Productions was creating a documentary about Mojang and the huge success of Minecraft? Well, it’s finally arrived, and it looks pretty impressive! If you’ve ever wondered about how exactly Minecraft became so popular so fast, then this is definitely something worth checking out. I’ve been watching the Double Fine Adventure! clips they’ve been putting out (for backers only!), and their quality is stellar. They released a trailer to promote the doc, and you can pick it up on disc, or digitally as a DRM-free download! Read more…

Here’s something mighty impressive: how would you like to play in the World of Warcraft map, but rather than playing WoW itself, you can punch trees and ride pigs? Different strokes for different folks, right? Well Reddit user RamsesA used custom software he made to take the WoW map and convert it into a Minecraft map, and it’s kind of crazy. Once compiled, the map is roughly 24 gigs in size, which is larger than actually installing WoW itself. Then again, this is a WoW map you can customize and change according to your whims. Talk about insane (and cool)! Read more…

The Minecraft money train keeps on rolling: on Wednesday, Minecraft released for the Xbox 360. Pretty cool, right? Especially for Notch and Microsoft as the game has already sold more than any other digital game on Xbox Live Arcade, in just the first 24 hours. Notch reported that the game has already become profitable, which is no surprise. It isn’t even updated to the same version as the PC game (it’s based on a year-old update of Minecraft and will be getting the other content later in updates), which just goes to show how popular Minecraft still is. 400,000 players popular, that is. Read more…

People make tons of crazy things in Minecraft. It’s one of those games where you can honestly make anything as long as you put your mind to it. Heck, people have made 8-bit computers in Minecraft. The latest creation catching the internet’s eye is a replication of important locations and lands from Game of Thrones within Minecraft. Best part is that you can visit this world on the creator’s Westeros server. Now you can finally walk through Winterfell for real! Well, mostly. Great work guys!

Interested in how games are made? Maybe interested in some charity too? Well today is your lucky day, as the organizers of the incredibly popular Humble Bundle are partnering with Mojang (creators of Minecraft) to create a game in 60 hours for charity. Basically, by the time the weekend is over, you’ll see a finished game show up. Currently, polls on Mojang’s site are dictating that the game will be a “steampunk real time strategy” game. They’ve already started, so hop on over and check out the whole process! Read more…

Remember those Minecraft LEGO sets we kept hearing about? Well here it is: the third LEGO CUUSOO crowd-voted project! It’s modular in design, so while it fits together as a single model (as seen above) it also separates into 4 sections that function as their own set. It doesn’t look too bad (and for the LEGO collectors out there, it has lots of handy flat 1×1 tiles in it). You can pre-order it through J!NX’s online store for $34.99 and it’ll release in the summer! Read more…

If you’re looking for a recipe for internet success, face it, you’ve been beat. Avemagnadude created a trailer that combines the two most popular video games this holiday season: Minecraft and Skyrim. Using a combination of in-game footage from Minecraft and custom CGI he recreated the Skyrim trailer in all it’s glory, and also brought to a conclusion this whole silly Mojang vs. Skyrim silliness. It’s really quite stylish, although the name ‘Minerim’ doesn’t exactly sound too pleasing. Click through for the full video. Read more…

Check out this neat little recreation of the Battle of Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back by youtube user TheToma69. It was crafted using Xbox Live! Arcade’s FortressCraft. I’m sure some of you probably wondering what that is, and the answer is yes, it’s just another MineCraft clone, but it also happens to be the highest grossing indie title on Xbox Live, and I’d say this was pretty good for something built on a home console. Read more…

Mojang’s block-building game Minecraft accomplished a rare feat in gaming — it’s been one of the most popular and recognizable games in the world for over a year, but it only came out yesterday. A two-year-plus beta testing period gave it all the exposure it needed to thrive, and now you can find the highly addictive game on Steam, ready for your real dollars. Minecraft is pretty much the definition of “indie darling” , but it has a ridiculously wide appeal; after all, who doesn’t like building with blocks? The possibilities are limited only by your imagination, time, and tolerance for bad graphics. (If you’re looking for something a little more two-dimensional, though, allow me to recommend Terraria.) Read more…